Leo Heuser wrote...
Or
=LARGE(Rng,SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF(Rng,$D$2:D2))+1)
not array entered, but entered "normally" with <Enter

How do you believe LARGE works? It needs to sort the numeric values fed
to it, so using it you can't avoid sorting.

That so, how could you believe the formula construct

D2:
=MAX(Rng)

D3 and down:
=LARGE(Rng,SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF(Rng,$D$2:D2))+1)

would be as efficient as

D2:
=MAX(Rng)

D3 and down [array formulas]:
=MAX(IF(Rng<D2,Rng))

?